BANGKOK, November 23, 2016 - The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) announces its strategic plan for 2017, driven by the vision “To Make the Capital Market ‘Work’ for Everyone.” To continue strengthening SET’s leading position in ASEAN, boosting market growth in term of both fund mobilization and investment activities and ensuring high quality standard in all operational platforms are core missions. Meanwhile, SET aims to expand its fund raising coverage to competitive s-curve industry, startup businesses, as well as strengthening Thai aging society in term of wealth creation, reinforcing SET mission toward inclusiveness and sustainable growth.

The goal is to develop the capital market for all stakeholders, while building up the foundation for the Thai capital market, economy, society, and the country in line with the government’s new economic model “Thailand 4.0.” A particular focus will be put on seeking high competitiveness industries, while establishing an ecosystem conducive for startup companies for fundraising.

SET and its partners aim to build an investment culture via digital platforms, while promoting Investment Saving Plan (ISP) to allow Thais to get ready for an upcoming aging society. While SET will continue to provide and develop excellent infrastructure and capability in accordance with international practices, Moreover, SET as regional connector will join Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) to launch CLMV index to promote high potential businesses in the region.

SET Chairman Chaiyawat Wibulswasdi said that the capital market has been an instrumental driving force for the economic development. In 2017, SET has thus set a vision to continuously develop the capital market to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth for all stakeholders. This would reinforce the government’s “Thailand 4.0 economic model” to enhance Thailand’s economic competitiveness.

SET President Kesara Manchusree also elaborated that SET has set out the 2017 strategic goal to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth, covering three areas:

Fund-raising Cultivator: to expand fundraising opportunities through various approaches
To attract newly listed securities focusing on Thailand’s competitive industries and clusters such as food and energy, state-enterprises’ infrastructure funds and common stocks, as well as potential foreign listing, while providing fund-raising knowledge to potentially high-growth small and medium-sized enterprises and start-up companies
To enhance the quality and capability of listed companies by facilitating fundraising tools, as well as encouraging them to adopt the environment, social, and governance (ESG) principles. In addition, SET will enhance capabilities of social enterprises through various programs including “SET Social Impact Platform” - an online platform to connect both businesses and investors for collaborative synergy. It will also increase efforts to raise the international recognition for listed firms through roadshows, “Dow Jones Sustainability Indices” (DJSI), “MSCI Index”, and the upcoming “CLMV Index”.
To build start-up ecosystem to strengthen the knowhow and readiness for raising capital funds. In this regard, it plans to launch the start-up trading platform in Q3/2017.

· To foster an investment culture by creating a long-term investor base in keeping with an aging society. In this regard, SET and its partners will promote ISP through online application, while creating and an investment portal as a knowledge hub for multi-asset class investment.

· To educate Thai people to diversify investment into provident funds and encourage employers to provide employee’s choice schemes for provident funds

· To launch the “FundConnext”- a technology-enabled fund service platform enabling investors to access mutual funds efficiently (March 2017). SET plans to develop the platform to serve as a central registrar for mandatory provident funds.

For this part of the strategy, SET targets to attract 110,000 retail investors from equity and derivatives markets.

3. Excellent Infrastructure & Capability: to develop the capital market infrastructure and standardize operational practices, as well as to bridge investment opportunities with global market through digital platforms, including:

· To continuously develop infrastructure such as open architecture and cyber security in line with international standards

· To standardize the clearing and settlement securities process, preparing for the two business days clearing and settlement cycle of securities trading (T+2)

· To cooperate with other regional exchanges on foreign listing

“SET’s 2017 strategic plan will help create a new "S-curve" by facilitating new competitive industry to gain easier access to capital funds and enhance capabilities for start-up companies. This is in line with the government’s policy to synergize efforts from the public and private sectors to enhance Thailand’s sustainable development,” Chaiyawat commented.

In 2016, SET achieved key milestones and maintained its leading position in ASEAN with SET index is best performer among ASEAN-5, up 15 percent at 1,485.68 points (as of November 22, 2016), the average daily trading value at THB 53.44 billion, being the highest in ASEAN for five consecutive years. Market capitalization of new listing at initial public offerings totaled THB 136.66 billion, the highest among ASEAN5, while fundraising of listed companies from secondary market was worth a combined THB 273.47 billion (as of end-October). The combined market capitalization of SET and Market for Alternative Investment (mai) rose 18 percent from the end of last year to THB 14.88 trillion, On the quality aspect, 14 Thai listed companies have been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), highest among ASEAN, while the average corporate governance (CG) of Thai listed companies from ASEAN CG Scorecard has been constantly increased, showing that Thai listed companies have continued to upgrade their CG practices.

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